What Came Before
by Chandinee Richards
Summary: Before the scouting legion, before the military police, before the wall and the titans, there was him. An abandoned soul, with no purpose other then to wander. Then came the beast, who gave his life meaning again. *kink meme fill* (cover image not mine)


**Fill for a kink meme promt ( snkkink. dreamwidth 2124. html?thread= 2355788# cmt2355788 ). Also my first AoT fic, so should be interesting.**

**And just so no one is confused, the "he" in this story is Titan!Eren. **

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything besides the words on the screen. **

He was always the smallest of the group. It sort of annoyed him, how tiny he was compared to his creators, but no matter. It worked for him.

They needed him to be this size anyway. They needed him to care for the smaller things which inhabited this world with them. It was a tireless, thankless job, but he enjoyed it. The small creatures - humans if he remembered correctly- always seemed happy to see him. For them, he was a kind watcher, a protector, a link between them and his masters.

Then his masters had left, leaving him with no warning, no idea when they went. The humans too had moved on, following the animals across the lands, leaving him alone. But he was not alone for long.

He was at the ocean when he met the beast.

It was a hot afternoon and the water was so, so cool. He gladly made the walk down the sand and through the waves. He was happily floating on his back, enjoying the feel of the water and the fish when his arm hit something. He looked over, expecting to see one of the large fish (a human had called them sharks, but he was always forgetting.) Instead he met two sunken black eyes in a large furry head.

Needless to say he jumped as best as he could in the water, which translated into an awkward sprawling of this limbs and a splash as he managed to submerge himself. He quickly righted himself and looked up at the newcomer.

It was laughing at him. "You are not very coordinated are you young one?" it asked. He opened his mouth to reply. Then he remembered he had not been blessed with the gift of speech. Damn his masters for that.

The beast waited a few moments before continuing. "Why do you swim here by yourself?" he shrugged, sinking down into the water. He was quite done now, thank you very much.

"Are you going to hide from me young one?" it chuckled again. This time he growled at it. There was no way he was letting some creature mock him.

It stared at him before nodding. "So the young one has a fiery side?" it said to itself. It then turned and began to walk away.

He looked after it, watching until it exited the water and walked off. He then quickly followed suit, leaving the water and running off. He'd had enough swimming for one day.

For some reason he was not surprised to see the beast by where he normally spent the night. Although he was not sure how it had gotten there before him (a lie, he knew exactly why. Damn him for stopping to help the poor bird.)

He sat against a tree, watching the beast. It simply stared at him. So he stared back.

That was how they spent most of the evening; sitting and staring at each other, neither one moving or speaking. He refused to be the one to break the silence with any type of noise. It paid out in the end, although not in the way he was expecting.

He was nearly asleep when he heard the beast ask if he was alone. He glanced over at it sleepily before shaking his head no. His masters had deserted him.

"Well then." The beast took a seat on the grass across the way. "I suppose we are both left without a family."

He looked down sadly, exhaling light grey steam. He already knew he didn't have a family. Was it truly necessary to remind him?

"Perhaps," it continued "We should travel together. I have been tracking the humans now for quite some time. It would be useful to have someone like you on my side."

He nodded. He understood the main topic, to go explore the world with it. But leaving meant saying goodbye to all the creatures he had cared for. But to see the rest of the world, how could he pass that up?

He gave the beast a slight nod, an agreement to travel together. He then closed his eyes. He needed to recharge.

"I call myself Ecio." The beast told him, pausing move his rock. He looked over at it. He called himself…? "The humans call it a name. It is what you call yourself." It explained.

He shrugged. There had never been a reason for him to be called something, so he was not going to start that now.

He once again closed his eyes and began to drift off. Although before he fell into the blackness, he could have sworn he heard the beast say "We will need to find you something to call yourself sooner or later, won't we?"

**I hope that wasn't too terrible...I actually wound up writing this at like, 3 in the morning...^^;; oops...**

**Reviews are loved. **


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